Kate's and Keith's Alphabet Book
by Bittersweet Romanticide
Summary: For the Alphabet challenge, twenty six drabbles for twenty six themes, each corresponding to a letter of the alphabet. Rated T because...eventually I'll write something in here inappropriate for prepubescent eyes.
1. Almonds

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon Ranger, nor the themes listed here. These came from a challenge by A Rose for me-A Rose for you.**

Well, this pairing is right out of Pokémon Ranger. The main character, I was a girl (shock) and I sensed some major romantic tension between Keith and the main character, I don't know if they tone it down for the guys, but I saw some love there. So, this pairing came about. Apparently the girl's name is Kate. Kate isn't very vocal, she's withdrawn and very focused. Why? Alert me to a time when you were ever given more than a chance to make Kate say yes or no? Generally, that's all you got, and the only long sentences she would have spoke was debriefing.

Make Kate special, dammit, not another cardboard cutout! Kate saved the world, she deserves to be special!

* * *

Almond

The boy leaned forward with a short laugh. "Come on, Kitty, you did Rythmi awesome and she's not even in the room! Do me next! You can do me better 'cuz I'm right here!"

"Don't call me Kitty, Keith," she sighed, playing with her styler and reaching for the nut bowl on the table.

She didn't see the point of sneaking out of the room to huddle down in the common room, ducking flashing lights and holding back giggles in case teachers showed up. She wanted to be a ranger, a really, really good ranger. She heard that the other kids wanted to excel to, that they had big dreams, but she didn't quite get it. They would pass notes in class, stay up late, giggle and completely ignore half the rules she had spent quite a few nights pouring over the book to memorize every rule and code.

"Well, we have to talk about something. I can't go to bed yet, tomorrow's my first big test. I haven't had a test this big since…ever. My school never gave us tests, ever. They gave us a quiz or two, but we never got anything hard and I'm so nervous but I'm really excited too. I mean, you moved in from a big city, so you probably had big tests all the time and you're used to this exciting stuff but this never happens for me."

She shook the bowl while he spoke and popped an almond into her mouth, quietly sighing, "You talk too much."

"Ew!" he cried, covering his mouth and looking around as if a teacher would run up. Then, in a quieter voice, he plunged on. "Almonds? I hate those. I'm a peanut kind of guy."

She nodded silently, and ate yet another almond as he began to chatter on about the joy of peanuts versus almonds. Meanwhile, she began running through a few lists in her head. It was obvious that ground and water beat fire types, but rock was a little trickier. The one she really got stuck on was poison. She had been studying about it, and she was quite sure that psychic beat poison, but she wasn't sure. She would have to review it before class. She was the only one that opened it outside of class. The other kids practiced their techniques and she studied. You could have the best styler in the world, but you were still sunk if you couldn't use a good assist.

"So, what do you think?"

She blinked slowly. "I think…I like almonds. They're my favorites. A certain percentage of others must like them too, or else they wouldn't sell them. No one would buy them, and they would make no profit. It would be illogical to think they would do so. Other nuts may be more popular, but just because you like one nuts doesn't mean you can like several varieties. It's very complicated, with overlapping percents, but I'm sure the company that makes the nuts knows how to go about their business."

"Kitty," he pouted. "You're talking too much facts and I think you should do me next. You're quiet and you look at things, express your talent! It's awesome!"

She sighed, closing her eyes and turning her head up to the ceiling. "Alright, you've got light skin. You're white, but not deathly pale. You're a healthy shade, probably a lot darker than you should since you spend so much time in the sun. You've got a nice nose, though it does turn up at the end. It's narrow. Your cheekbones are high, but you can't see them because you've still got a bit of the roundness of baby fat, which we'll have until our mid-twenties. That's normal. Your lips are thin, not pouty kissing lips, and a bit pale. Your ears are a little too flat against your head. Your eyes are a nice enough shade of green, match mine, which is pretty neat. Ah, brown hair, a little thing and flat but not too bad. You must use some kind of hair product to boost it. It makes your hair a slightly different color than your eyebrows, but barely. Oh! And the shape of your eyes! I almost forgot! They're slightly tilted up at the corner, and certainly almond shaped."

She froze at that, her own green eyes going wide. She had jumped to her feet and was out of there in no time, leaving Keith looking over the sofa and gawking that she had run off. He turned back to the nut bowl, and, slowly, ever so slowly, took an almond and placed it in his mouth.

A moment later he spit it out. They may have looked nice, but they still tasted nasty.

**

* * *

**I wish I had that talent…-sigh-

Hope you enjoyed!


	2. Baseball

Two things to explain:  
1) Caravine come out of nowhere and ambush you in the Almia game. Constantly. It's annoying as hell.  
2) The partner pokémon is basically a version of Ash/Pikachu kind of relationship. Undeniably close, it's taken a liking to you, whatever you want to call it.

* * *

Baseball

There was only one thing Kate hated more than caravine…those nasty, disgusting, angry creatures that stalked her around the highlands until she simply wanted to throw rocks at them. Of course, she never would. Well, there was a time when she had, but it had been quick and she had apologized and nobody saw her before she returned to her calm, Kate-like state of yes and no. But, to return to the topic sentence, there was one, singular thing Kate hated more than caravine, and that was baseballs.

No, not the sport baseball, but the actual thing itself, _a _baseball, not _the _baseball. She found that to be quite pleasant. It was long and slightly dull and she generally started reading halfway through and only looked up when something especially exciting happened. Her father was especially into the sport, so that got her involved even further. But anything involving something flying at her head gave her caravine flashbacks. Damned creatures.

So there she was, with a hard hat baseball helmet colored a bright red, an aluminum baseball bat swinging lightly in her hands, and Keith at the other end. He was promising to toss it underhand, gently at her, and they were both hoping she wouldn't have those terrible flashbacks again. Munchlax was standing behind her, and he was hoping the flashbacks would stay far, far away as well. They had actually rented the entire place out, Rythmi and a few other of Kate's ranger friends were standing by, but Keith was the only one brave enough to come in.

There were only two options as anyone could see it, the first was that she hit it and it hit him (which it inevitably would) or that she would freak out, the loudest that anyone had ever seen her, and attempt to climb the chain links fence again, find out she couldn't, and start circling the pitching machine in an attempt to befriend it then send it away. The pitching machine seemed to be very tame. It only took one circle without a charge up. Kate had gotten a Superior for that.

"Alright, Kate, you're ready?" Keith said slowly, holding the ball up.

She nodded, taking a deep breath in and out. Then he tossed it, underhand. Honestly, a softer throw wouldn't have made it to her. As it was, she probably would have to take a step forward to smack it. However, she freaked. She began to use the bat to beat at the chain link fence, her eyes closed and shrieking something about "Caravine, thou shalt not devour my flesh". Eventually, everyone was happy to see that she dropped the bat without going after anything living, took out her styler, and circled Keith.

The boy yelped and began to race about the enclosed area, but the girl wasn't a Top Ranger for nothing, flashbacks or no flashbacks, and she effortlessly charged up (a double charge up) and circled him twice. Apparently, that was all he took before he was subdued, plopping on the floor and staring up at the sky blankly.

It was then that Kate came out of her flashback, stared at her styler, and much to everyone's amusement muttered, "_What's _my new partner pokémon?"

**

* * *

**Nobody likes this pairing. That's really, really crushing. No one! No one! Everyone loves KatexKellyn. It's so depressing. I need to start a fanclub.


	3. Cookie

I'm going to assume that they started the Ranger school stuff at about ten. I'm pretty sure they don't specifically state otherwise, and I don't see why the age would be different, so…six years later...sixteen, about?  


* * *

Cookie

Keith knew many things about Kate that he wished he rather didn't, or worse, wished he could hate. It would be much simpler if he could hate the annoying way she would stare at him, not interrupting or arguing no matter how he yelled, then spoke with all the calm logic as if she was commenting on the weather. It would be much simpler if he could hate the way she used her actions more than words, scratching a sharp nail down his forearm to quiet him when they were in a board meeting or a movie or some other quiet place, rather than following everyone else and simply telling him to shush. What he hated that he couldn't hate was, first and foremost, the infuriating, unemotional, logical way she went about her business.

There she was, reviewing the Ranger Handbook, for goodness sakes! Six years out of the academy and she _still _reviewed the outdated thing and even compared it to newer models! She was leaning on a wall, right leg crossed over her left, with a stick jutting out of the cook of her elbow (not, of course, inside her flesh but nestled in between her arm and torso) with a string tied to the tip and a little cookie dangling from the end. There was little Munchlax, leaping up and down for it. Making sad little grunting sounds as he tried.

"Kate!" he cried, racing over. "What are you doing?"

Her eyebrows came together as she watched him pull off the cookie and feed it to her pokémon. A little flare of anger rose in her stomach, and she narrowed her eyes at him. He met hers steadily, the brave little boy, unafraid despite the body language she had mastered. A little flare of something else rose in her throat, and she rolled her shoulders. She had always liked that he could stand up for himself. It was nice, new, refreshing, different, sexy and…sexy?

Kate did not freak at the sudden revelation. At least, she did not freak in the normal sense. She spoke a longwinded sentence without being asked to, and that was enough to make Keith gawk, not really paying attention to the content of said sentence. "Well, as a female I instinctually look for someone more powerful than I am so he may defend the home and be a wonderful hunter and provider. This certainly would explain certain thoughts and urges."

He backed up and pointed, finger inches away from her face. "You talked!"

She eyed the finger warily. "You were previously unaware that I had such an ability?"

He shook his head and sighed. "Forget it, Kitten. Tell me what you were doing to your munchlax. He's your partner pokémon! You only get one, you know!"

"Correction, I only get one at a time." Kate kneeled down to pick up a brown bag of chocolate chip cookies, swapping that with her manual, and dug around inside, not once dropping the stick. She pulled out a single cookie and hooked it on the metal end of the string, and began to dangle it again. The little creature began to leap once more for his cookie, and Kate smiled. "There we go. We're back on track after Keith ruined our little training program."

He tilted his head to the side. "Training program?"

"He needs to exercise. He's been getting awfully chubby lately." She began to swing the cookie gently, smiling as he chased after it like a kitten with feathers, a dog with a ball, a turtle with a shrimp treat or a deer with a car (which may be unknown, but these creatures enjoy leaping out in front of cars for sport).

"Talkative lately," he retorted. "It's not nice to do that to your pokémon. I mean, he's a munchlax, Kate! They just eat all the time! They aren't supposed to be skinny! I mean, it's not like a _snorlax_ can be overweight!" At the twitch of her lips, he dropped his head to his hands with a moan. "What's the weight?"

"The average weight of a snorlax is one thousand and fourteen point one pounds. Once they scrape the one thousand seven hundred line, they are officially not just overweight, but obese. There is no overweight snorlax, that's true, but that's merely because once you reach that peak weight the intense heart problems start, there's nothing in between, quoted from that book you mock me for reading." She tapped the Handbook with her foot and a smile.

"At least you can let him have a bunch of nonfat treats for each little task. He needs a lot of food!" Keith argued, even though, by this point, her logic generally outweighed his and the debated were generally useless. He _had_ won once or twice (though he had a feeling she might have let him win).

"It feels nicer when you work for it," she said with another twitch of the stick.

"You're one to talk about feelings. You're heartless, not even warm enough to offer me a cookie."

Keith reached for one, but was surprised when she pulled the bag away. Again he reached, and she pulled. A moment later munchlax was content because Kate had dropped the stick and he could eat his cookie, and the two were in a whirlwind of squealing wrestling, each attempting to go for their stylers to loop little circles, all of which were broken until Keith finally tripped, and the two fell onto the longue couch.

Each was breathing heavy. Kate was upside down, legs over the back of the couch while her torso was flat on the cushions, under him, who supported himself with straight, trembling arms while his knees balanced on the edge of the couch. She leaned up, his heart thundering in his chest, and those cool, calm, calculating lips met his, making his arms give out and squishing her. She tapped his head and wriggled out from under him, tossing the boy a cookie from the bag.

"See? It was better if you worked for it!"

Mew, he wished he could hate her for being right.


	4. Doll

Doll

"Hey, doll face," Keith said, grinning as he slid into the seat next to her.

The international rule was _not _to make fun of Kate. There was something about her, that when a teasing comment was sent her way, she would bounce back a glare that could freeze a star going supernova. Team Dim Sun would freeze in their cackling. Friends and team mates would clear their throats and nervously look away. She truly was a force to be reckoned with. Most followed the rule but Keith, ah, warm and loving, can't take the hint that she's mad Keith, the boy who could recite the number of loops it would take to catch a certain species of pokémon with several different styler levels, would continue to joke and smile.

"They didn't say doll face in the fifties," she muttered.

"That's where you're from?" he asked lightly. "It's pretty cool that we both decided to be creative. Everyone else came from, like, the sixties and stuff, but nobody came from the twenties or the fifties like we are! I have to say, it's all pretty cool. I'm out of my uniform and in a tux, which, we all know makes me look dashing. And you, a wig, a white dress, no bra and makeup! Why, Miss Kate, I do believe you're all dolled up."

She groaned. "Dear Mew, Keith, please don't tell me you're about to spend the entire night making doll puns."

"You know me like country knows Dolly Parton," he beamed, running his fingers over the plain, white tablecloth. "Well, Marilyn Monroe, that is who you're dressing as, isn't it?" She nodded, and he continued. "Well, Marilyn, if you aren't too busy, I'd like to take you out on the dance floor. The music is swinging and, if I'm not mistaken, I'm pretty sure this song about diamonds is by you? Correct me if I'm wrong, you always do."

"I don't dance," she snorted. "Keith, do I really seem like the dancing type?"

"You seem like the type that could learn," he argued, twisting childishly in his chair. "And you also seem like the type who would get really annoyed if I sat here all night telling you about the first time I captured a bidoff, and you know how I like to talk. See, I was walking down to the beach and I saw it. He did this weird little charge at me, but I was brave and I didn't run. Some other people may tell you that I ran and climbed a tree or something, but I didn't. I was brave and I stood my ground. Golly gee, Katie Kitten, why are you slamming your head on the table? That can't be healthy. So about that bidoff-"

"All night?" she muttered, lifting her head to raise an eyebrow.

"_All _night, baby doll," he said, smiling widely and holding out his hand.

She groaned and let him lead her out to the dance floor, muttering about how a diamond was a _much _better friend than he was. Despite her debate that she wasn't the dancing type, it wasn't exactly a challenge to swing her around the floor and lead her through slow dance steps, a few turns and a single dip where her could have sworn she flashed him a cheeky smile. They continued through the motions until he dare to whisper in her ear, "you know, this kind of thing often leads to baby making."

She gave him a good slap to his already reddening cheeks, getting the whole room to stop and stare, and quickly turned on her heel to storm out.

Keith, alone and embarrassed, struggled for a moment to think of what to say that could ease the tension and at the same time make him sound like he was okay with being slapped. What he said, in the end, did the latter but not the former, for it made him sound like a jackass and Kate could hear and attack a jackass from a sixteen mile radius. For what he said was this: "I guess even Barbie's got a temper."

He barely had time to yelp before the blue styler energy began its loop.


	5. Eternity

Eternity

"Hey, Kate," Keith began slowly, peaking his head out the door. It was their third week at the Ranger academy as "temporary teachers", and he couldn't believe that he was suddenly so…consumed with her. He didn't talk nearly as much as she thought he did, and he certainly hadn't gotten worse than ever before, but that girl somehow brought out an even more talkative nature in him than usual. It didn't even matter anymore, what was spewing forward, stories that usually had some point had faded, to the point where he could talk about the color of a couch for hours on end.

Meanwhile, she had been put in charge of Jacob's detention for the night. Partly because she was "such a good disciplinarian" and mostly because the other teachers had decided the brown haired girl needed much more interaction with children if she was ever going to…well, _not _kill them. Of course, her watching over detentions generally consisted of her reading her manual and occasionally looking up and making sure whatever naughty kid was enduring their punishment was continuing that punishment, for she knew from experience that it wasn't always a hard task to outwit the ones watching you and outlast your detention.

"Jacob, I swear to whatever deity you believe in there will be severe consequences if you do not continue your detention work. Do you trust that I have the power to administer such consequences?" she inquired lightly.

The boy rapidly shook his head, and she walked inside the building. She closed the door behind her and blinked at the brown haired boy. Then, she leaned against the door while he shuffled his feet as if these halls were not present day, but all those years ago, and he was the same, nervous boy who attempted to ask he if she would like to go capture a pokémon with him, and, oblivious to the fact that he was trying to ask her out, she had replied she would love to, and Rythmi should come along.

"Keith, I've got a student. You can't stare at your feet all day."

He looked up and tried his best smile, wondering if this time, perhaps, she would get it and not ask if Rythmi would come along. "Kate, I know this is kind of a stupid quest, but when you capture a pokémon, does it really stay with you until you release it? Could you keep it forever? Just until the sands of time run out?"

"You always were poetic," she chuckled. "Yes, one would guess that you could keep it forever. Eventually, you would release it. They'd want to go. You can't keep them there forever, and though the styler's power doesn't expire, the friendship affect does. It would grow angry, couldn't leave you, but might try to attack you, nip at you. The once docile doduo might become as evil and disgusting as those horrible, horrible caravine."

"Kate," he teased. "We had therapy about this."

She snorted in return.

"Now, speaking of caravine, remember when we played baseball? And you caught me? I was a partner pokémon. How long does a partner pokémon last?"

"A partner?" she asked. "Well, I suppose that kind of thing lasts forever. You could, occasionally, have a few that break off from a ranger, but they generally didn't like the ranger all that much in the first place. The truly dedicated partners, however, like Munchlax and I, one would have to conclude from the research that such a bond would last through all eternity. Pardon my sentimentality, but that kind of _love _is the type that lasts forever."

He gave a sheepish smile. "Wasn't I your new partner pokémon that day?"

"I suppose." She shrugged.

For a moment they were caught there, him smiling, her watching him with a curious look. For about ten minutes, long enough for the boy outside to forget her warning and fall on his back, gazing up at the clouds sleepily and having no idea what could be going on outside, their eyes were locked, Kate waiting for him to explain while Keith waited for the connection to strike her. And it would strike her, he knew, because he was very intelligent.

The moment came, eyes widening and mouth dropping open. "You mean…oh."


	6. Freedom

Freedom

She felt almost trapped in her body, at times. Somehow she found it almost hard to smile and laugh, to open herself up. Not because she was afraid too, but merely because she lacked the ability. She was logical, analytical, she never was able to feel. Tears were next to impossible. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she had cried, the last time her mind hadn't rationalized any kind of tragedy and left her feeling nothing towards a death, an injury, a sob story about unrequited love. The last time she had gotten tears was when a member of Team Dim Sun had punched her in the nose, and even then it hadn't been crying.

But he changed that, wonderfully changed that. His smile made her smile, his laugh made her laugh. When they kissed, she was able to cling to him, to express herself for once in her life through motions instead of words. A wink across the hall, a sway of her hips could convey that she was ready for a playdate up in her bedroom. She was able to lure him away from the most exciting stories, the most exciting cases, and he was able to set her free, to make her feel like everyone else. Feeling. Loving. Just plain, outright emotional.

He loved it. It was rare to get that flash but when he did…the raw emotion made him quiver. Her laugh made him float. Her anger made him a coward. Her passion, her moans made him reply with the same fervor, to the point where he just couldn't imagine being with anyone else, that anyone else could ever be better. This Ranger, this reserved woman could be stony in her job, then come alive, hot in love like a volcanic rock cracked open to reveal the lava beneath.

But it was that uncontrolled, finally freed emotion that ruined her. She should have known. Most Rangers barely made it to fifty once out of the service with the injuries sustained. They hadn't left, and, at forty, the smoke from the volcano had got to him. He was dead in the hospital two days once he was retrieved. She was without a husband. Her children were without a father. And that stony Kate returned for three weeks. Those three weeks were the time between his death and the funeral. She didn't speak, barely moved, and took no missions that week.

The funeral came around, and no one said a word when she slowly sank to her knees before the tombstone, his body buried under the dirt. And for the first time that anyone could remember, perhaps the first time since she had been born, Kate cried. She gripped the tombstone, and with loud, helpless sobs she cried. For three hours she sat there, and for the first hour everyone stayed, then most of her friends left. The second hour came by, and her family took her children to take care of them for the night. By the time she finished, that third hour, Rythmi was the only one left.

"I never cried before him," Kate whispered. "I didn't hurt like this. Not ever. Not a single time."

"I know, Katie," Rhythmi murmured. "But with the good comes the bad. You loved him, and you lost him. Oh, sweetie, even freedom has a price."


	7. Green

Green

"Tattoo's are the single most ridiculous thing on the planet," Kate explained, watching the needle slide over her arm. "You do know that, don't you? Bodyart's only purpose is so, twenty years down the road, one can have evidence that you were stupid at one point. But now that I'm getting this, Keith, if you ever try to break up with me I'll have to kill you. I've got your weird symbol injected into my arm in green ink, not to mention this is all quite painful, and getting it removed will be quite painful and give me an ugly scar."

"Could be worse," Keith said lightly, rubbing her hand. "You could've gotten a tramp stamp."

She glared. "A _what_?"

"A hoe tag?" he tried again. "Back bling? A bumper sticker?" He sighed and explained, "a tattoo on your lower back that makes men think that you're easy or sexy, usually a butterfree or something adorable or a word like your name, or sexy, or hot."

"Wonderful," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. She glared down at the man who was continuing to run the needle over her arm, in her arm, technically. Keith had made some kind of fancy symbol that she really couldn't explain, showed it to the tattoo artist, and the man had nodded and begun his work, green outlined in black. "Your job is completely pointless, sir. I hope you make good money, because you're not contributing to society in the least."

"Art is contributing," he argued.

"Sir, you draw naked woman on horny men. There is not a speck of art in this whole shop except for what my fiancé had brought in. You don't even have a heart that says Mom. What kind of tattoo artist doesn't have a heart that says Mom on it."

The man looked up and sighed, "Is she always this noisy?"

"Once she agreed she got drunk to numb the pain," Keith explained. "Believe it or not, this is her drunk. Really, really drunk. And, Kitten, the symbol I drew is supposed symbolize us being together forever. It's a love kind of symbol, not anything dirty. I got it tattooed on my arm in red, because that's your favorite color. You're getting it tattooed in green because that's _my _favorite color. We're doing this together. As a couple. Because we're going to be married in a few weeks, remember that? Presents to each other."

She eyed Keith, then the tattoo artist. "He's a real pansy, isn't he? Can you believe a strong girl like me is marrying a pansy."

"I saw him cry when I was putting on the tattoo," he agreed.

"I wasn't crying! My eyes just water up when I'm in pain!" Keith cried. "Neither of you are helpful! I try to be nice and be romantic for my future wife and what happens? I get made fun of! What has society come to that a man can't be just a little be sensitive?"

Kate narrowed drunken eyes at the tattoo. "Green reminds me of caravine." Her eyes widened. "Holy crap! Caravine is getting tattooed on my arm! I'll never be alone!"

It was at that moment, thanks to the combination of liquor and fear, that the girl passed out, and Keith spent the rest of the session supporting his fiancé. Once done, once she had woken up, he gave her a little kiss and leaned forward to blow on the green ink.


	8. Hell

**WARNING: Swear words. T rated fic. 'Kay?**

Hell

"Damn. Of all the days for me to be off. Crap, crap, crap. I'm having a horrible day! Get caught by Team Dim Sun, escape from Team Dim Sun, get screwed over by the Charizard of angry death," Kate muttered, shaking her head. Her loose hair smacked against her cheeks as she once again tried to work out how to make the styler recharge machine work. She gave it a good hard bonk with her fist, swore again, and went back to the careless shoving and jostling of her styler, hoping it would somehow click. She popped up from behind, calling to Keith, her look out, and asked him if he knew how to make it work.

"No! I don't know how to make the thing work!" he snapped. "You said you knew!"

"I lied," she said lightly. "Dally does it and considering she was a half wit I figured someone like me would be able to figure this shit out! I graduated top of the ranger class, Keith." She draped herself across the abandoned counter, eyes wide with rage. "I have more awards than anyone ever thought possible. I've stopped legendary beings. The one day, the _single _day I get my styler taken in for updates to make it quicker and junk and have to use a barely average replacement _this _happens. Fu-"

"Hey, no swearing," he muttered. "We talked about this, honeybunch."

"You said you wouldn't call me honeybunch," she gasped, kneeling with her back straight, hands slamming down on the counter.

"And on the first day we met you said you didn't talk a lot. Turns out I'm sweet when I'm nervous and you're as talkative as a broken record!" He stomped his foot and looked around. "Ugh, and these things are last generation to top it all off. We can't even contact Rythmi to get her to teach us how to do this. Wasn't there some kind of lecture telling us how to do this? You always pay attention. Why didn't you pay attention?"

She glared. "You were feeling up my thigh."

"You were tempting!" He gave a nervous laugh, then gulped at the sound of Team Dim Sun agents behind the door. The weren't approaching, thankfully, but setting up some kind of celebration. Something about the second uprising of Team Dim Sun…little did they know that Team Dim Sun was about to have their base crumple around them. "Alright, do you think we could make it out of here on the energy alone."

"Brilliant," she said sarcastically. "I didn't think of it. Of _course _we can make it out with four energy each with a styler that can't even _power up._ Damned idiot."

He groaned. "No need to swear, Kate. Do you think we could round up some kind of electric type to give up a charge?"

"There's no-"

"No, uh, I mean…" Keith shifted nervously. "There's some shinx we could power jack."

"Power jacking is _illegal,_ Keith," Kate spat. "There are pokémon that are used for certain purposes, that should only be used for certain purposes, and other purposes could hurt the pokémon or, more likely, the ranger. We cannot use an electric type to power up our stylers if it isn't the approved Field Move. We _can't_."

"Well, it's that or death!"

"Son of a bitch," she muttered.

He began to go into a strange, thrashing rage the likes of which she had only seen in pokémon battles when magikarp ran out of splash attacks, all the while screaming about how she shouldn't swear and it was all her fault they were in this mess and things like that. It was then that the sounds of the party above stopped, and Team Dim Sun reached for the doorknob, all beginning to panic when the door was discovered to be blocked.

At the cries of "Rangers!" Kate muttered, "We're in for hell, aren't we?"

"Heck, Kate. We're in for heck."

She snorted and gracefully leapt over the counter, looking for a shinx to corner and power jack, tapping him on the head with a carefree answer of, "Keith, darling, if we're going to hell I'm going to at _least _use the proper term."


	9. Immortal

Immortal

"Why do you do that?" Kate asked lightly.

The brown haired boy jumped, and Rythmi, sitting just an inch away, felt her mouth drop open. Four days they had known her and not once had she ever started a conversation. There was a little flush of jealousy from the blonde, most because she wanted to be the one that Kate bonded with. She wanted to be the one that drew the shy girl out of hiding and they could become best friends. The other flush was from the idea that Kate might like Keith, but Rhythmi thought that she could learn to like Keith. Him falling for someone else would be quite terrible for her plans.

He replied, "Why do I do what?"

"That," she said. In an attempt to communicate, the girl copied what he had done, raised her wrist to her mouth and pretended to suck out blood from a cut before letting it fall. She ran a finger along an old, leather bound book page until she found the passage she was looking for, and began to quote: "Blood, in fact, is one of the worst sources of nourishment available. The vampire bat must consume, at the very least, twenty grams of blood a night." She began to flip through her book, and quoted again: "Humans, however, could not live off this. Whereas a bat weighs about forty grams, the average human weight is seventy five _kilo_grams. It, ah, goes on to talk about other things, but there's a line that says that drinking too much blood makes you sick."

He blinked. "Well, 'm not drinking it for food."

She gave him a curious look.

"Well, I didn't make the cut myself. I just got a bump. I'm drinking it for fun," he explained. "What's your book about?"

"_Disproving the Supernatural_," Kate murmured. "My parents got me it for my birthday, because I was always so obsessed with mythical creatures. It's ridiculous to believe in them, but I like to try to make it rational. I like to hear the other side of the debate, because I can make exceptions to the rule, change things around so I can say they're real. So, you know, all the things they say are impossible like fairies and dragons and mermaids and things; it's all in here and I can disprove it."

He was by her side in a flash, the book gone from her hands. He jumped when she gave him a good smack for it, taking it back only to hand it to him when he asked if he could see it. He began to paw through the book, making jokes and crying out how he did believe in fairies, and actually looking mildly surprised at a few fanciful beasts that he hadn't heard of, or thought it was real. Finally, he came to a stop, slamming down the book and crying out, "Inconclusive proof!"

"What?" Rythmi asked, clawing her way over the couch to eye it. "What is it?"

"They say that you can't live forever, because nothing lives forever! Not even stars! But that proof is inconclusive!" he cried with joy. "We do not know if the human soul lasts forever and the bond that joins them, love! Since we do not know this, there is no conclusion! This book is fake! Burn it at the stake!"

The two boisterous children threw up a, "Huzzah!"

Kate smiled and closed the book tenderly. "Friendship and love last forever too, don't you think?"

They grinned right on back.


	10. June

Disclaimer: I don't own "Johnny and June" by Heidi Newfield.

XD Don't worry, not a songfic. There's two lines of the song in here, added so you know what I'm talking about and because, well, it's pretty dang funny!

* * *

June

"If he starts singing, Rythmi, I swear to whatever higher power there may be I will stab you," Kate muttered. "I don't care if he's just turned twenty and it's an extra special birthday, you didn't need to get him drunk. And once you got him drunk, you could have solved the problem yourself. And, _and _even if all this occurs, you could have at least spared me the horror of bringing him to a karaoke bar. Please tell me he's not walking on stage."

"If I had known all it took was a…half a bottle of vodka, damn!" Rythmi's eyes widened. "Heavyweight! And you're drunk?"

"Drunk as a skunk in a funk," Kate agreed, turning in her seat to watch her boyfriend stumble onstage.

He was wearing faded blue jeans and a loose black shirt that supported some kind of disease. He gripped the microphone and tossed his head as if he had hair to toss, hair that wasn't short and spiky and flowed when he shook his head. His did not move and this merely made him look weird as his head swung about, no long hair flowing as is needed for the appropriate head banging move. It was the first line that sent all the drunken rangers laughing: "_Oh, there's something 'bout a man in black makes me want to buy a Cadillac, throw the top back and roll down to Jackson town._"

She rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "Congrats, me! My boyfriend is gay. He likes his men like he likes his likes his technology: covered in black."

And on he went, dancing about the stage and singing with all his heart. "_I wanna love like Johnny and June!_" seemed to be his favorite line, for it was the one he sang the loudest and, consequently, the worst. Halfway through his song Kate turned around and slammed her head onto the bar, hoping that she would soon pass out and not have to endure anymore of her boyfriend's singing, and certainly praying that she would die so the calls about her loving him as much as June loved Johnny would quiet down.

It didn't help that two thirds of the way through his performance all her superiors joined in the song. New rangers, old rangers, rangers ranked one through ten were all singing the love song, and a few had even gotten up and began to dance. Rythmi attempted to drag Kate to her feet, but merely got a scathing glare and a threat about making herself throw up all over her pretty sunshiny hair. The pretty operator backed off then.

It only surprised her when her supposed boyfriend kneeled down, his lone, cracking voice singing the final bit of the song. "Kate, it was June when I met you. It was five years later that we graduated together and started our lives, again in June. By coincidence, it wasn't until the next year of June that we met up again. Well, Kate, four more years have passed and it's been a while since we've had a really good June. I was wondering if you'd like to make this the one to remember."

She wrinkled her nose. "Huh?"

"I'll be Johnny Cash if you'll be June Carter." At that point, he pulled out a diamond ring.

While the bar gasped, her drug addled eyes attempted to focus. "A ring? That's marriage stuff, right?"

"You're actually drunk," he sighed with a roll of his eyes. "Typical, Rythmi, best operator I know but the second we ask you to keep an eye on anything other than your job-"

"It's a yes 'til I'm sober," Kate interrupted. "You'll have to ask again in the morning, and we'll have to get married next year to keep with the pattern, but why the hell not? We've got nothing better to do. Plus it's better than you liking men in black and Cadillac's. I love ya, Johnny!"

He pecked her lips and put the ring away, to be used again in the morning. "I love ya too, June."


	11. Karma

Karma

As she ran, heart pounding, feet throbbing, and fighting off the urge to laugh at the Munchlax waddling as fast as his little legs could carry him, she vaguely wondered if there was such a thing as karma. It wouldn't surprise her, as things did tend to work out that way. For every force there is an equal and opposite force, she supposed. But, still, what could she have possibly done to deserve being sent to the valley of death with the caravine of death, one that had decided it really didn't like her?

"Would someone _help_?" Kate cried out to her friends.

"No," Keith and Rythmi chortled.

"Run, Forest, run!" Keith cried joyfully.

"I will personally set you on fire when this is over," she shrieked, ducking as it launched an attack on her. "Think happy thoughts…happy thoughts…this isn't working! Can one of you get out your freaking styler and help? Circle, circle, circle, circlecirclecirclecircle!"

Keith sighed and got to his feet, effectively running after and cutting off the raging Caravine, and then bringing out his styler to run a few circles and stop its chase of Kate. It wasn't a hard catch, really, pretty easy. It took little time before the caravine was hovering by his side, glaring at Kate, who in turn was glaring from behind a rock. Munchlax, who apparently still hadn't realized the excitement was over, was still running about the valley with little arms waving and screaming. Rythmi settled the problem with a rustle of her candy bar wrapper, and the silly beast sat down beside her and stared with hungry eyes.

"Come on out, Kate," he sighed.

"Burn it first."

"You want me to set a pokémon on fire?"

"Yes."

"We're not supposed to do that."

"Only morally. It's not even mentioned in the Ranger handbook because it's a universally understood no-no. Set it on fire."

"No, Kate."

"It likes fire."

"It does _not_," he snapped, stomping his foot."Get out from behind the rock."

She glared at him for a moment. "I will discuss setting it on fire, but only if you leave the caravine behind and join me behind the rocks. This is a no-cops situation, you get me? I'm a crazy criminal, Keith. You know how I get with those things. Behind the rock or not at all, _not at all_, oh yes. And then I'll teach you the error of your ways and we shall set it on fire and it will be glorious. Just like the tree last year. That worked out well."

Rythmi gawked. "You did that on purpose. Children _cried_."

"Yeah, but they didn't burn now did they?" Kate retorted. "Keith! It's rock time! Now!"

She vanished behind the rock, and, rubbing his temples and musing on the strangeness phobia could cause, Keith followed. He sat down on the springy grass, and in a low, soft voice, she began to rant for the next ten minutes about why she should be allowed to set it on fire and how the world would be a better place. He nodded slowly, nothing she said really convincing him as it generally made little to no sense, and when she finished he sighed, "You still can't set a living creature on fire."

"But I even gave you a kiss last night, doesn't that count for anything?" she asked pitifully, lowering her head with the cutest pout she could manage (which wasn't terribly cute, as there was a hatred in her eyes which could give any man the shakes).

He gave her a kiss back, scooping her up into her arms and laying on a good one, albeit a short one. "That."

She stomped her foot against the rock. "Fire as it may be, it's not setting a caravine aflame. Damned karma."

**

* * *

**Sorry it sucked, but this one really had me stuck. Blame it on sickness!


	12. Love

Love

"You freaky little pyro," Ketih muttered to himself, breathing fogging in the cold. "You can't burn down a Christmas tree!"

"Why not?" she said, scowling as yet another match was blown out by the icy wind. This was her ninth in a book of twelve matches, and the outlook was grim. "The tree is already dead, so I'm not killing it and it no longer holds any religious significance except for what, three people? It's a symbol of peace and love and the holidays are over so I want to set it on fire."

He sighed. "Rhythmi is reading a story under this at twelve, even though it probably isn't safe to bring kids out when it's this cold and no one is walking around town. It's eleven in the morning, on a Saturday when I'm usually sleeping until two, and you've dragged me out here to freeze my butt off so you can set a Christmas tree on fire. I don't know who's more messed up; you because you're sitting a tree on fire or me for finding it an interesting quality." He jolted himself out of finding her intriguing and began to shout, "You're a psycho! What do you have to say for yourself?"

"_Oh, Christmas tree, oh, Christmas tree! I wish to burn your branches!_" she sang merrily. "_Here's a match and gasoline! I'll pour them on your branches green! Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree! I'm going to roast your sorry ass!_"

His mouth dropped open. "Sicko."

"Jealous," she retorted, though neither quite knew what she could be calling him jealous for.

She struck a match, which lit, much to her joy and surprise, and she attempted to set fire to the tree. She possessed no such luck and pouted as the flame went out, leaving her with very few matches left. Unwilling to take the risk of a tree that needed a little extra push to burn, she gave him a harsh command to stay where he was an after a very long wait (or what felt very long) the girl had come back with a full size lighter and a small plastic bin of gasoline. She poured it on quickly, thankfully not getting any of her or her clothing, and lit yet another match. This time, the tree practically shot up in flames and she barely managed to get out of the way.

Rythmi appeared with the kids not too long later, and, one by one, the little ones began to cry.

"Don't be sad," Kate said in her falsest, happiest voice. "There's lots more trees and this one was dead to begin with!"

They began to cry harder, and the teenage boy muttered, "This is proof that we can never have children."

"No," she argued. "Your unsupportive attitudes of my hobbies confirm this relationship will crash and burn in no time. You do realize this burning tree is a symbol of my love for you?"

"It's a symbol of your love of fire," he snapped.

"Mmm," she agreed softly, smiling at the burning tree. "I do love fire."


	13. Marriage

Marriage

"Marriage is a big commitment for a Ranger, not to mention dangerous," the teacher said. She smiled, a sweet, smile, but a sad one. "As you may know, it's very, very rare for them to marry. In fact, less than four percent of all Rangers ever marry before they retire. Can anybody try to guess why there would be so few marriages?" The kids paid no attention, doodling at their desks or eyes glazing as they stared up at the ceiling. "Come on, kids. I know it isn't about what you want to do, but this is going to be a huge part of your life one day! This could change everything for you, be the major deciding factor in whether or not you want to continue your duties! Anybody! Spare a guess!"

"They wouldn't marry because twenty percent of all Rangers perish before the age of thirty. Thirty percent perish before the age of forty. Nearly half perish by the time you reach fifty, and once you turn fifty five you are forced from the force," Kate quoted quietly. "People die a lot. That's why nobody gets married. They're all afraid that one will die. Rangers are generally too compassionate to put others in that kind of danger and it would be ridiculous to combine the risks of parents leaving their children behind once they were dead and gone. It's too risky. That's why."

Kate cleared her throat and looked up from the textbook she was clutching. "That is the reason, isn't it ma'am? The risk?"

She cleared her throat and nodded. The calm, clear voice with which she had quoted the statistics gave her shivers, and the big, innocent eyes gave her that flash of pity that happened every time she gave this lecture. Yet another batch to never find love. Being a strict family type of woman, she couldn't imagine how anyone could handle it, and her voice squeaked when she spoke, "That's exactly right, Kate. Most Rangers die. It's too dangerous and risky."

"For the children," Kate agreed with a nod.

"For anyone!" the teacher exclaimed. "Imagine this girls, boys, the love of your life dying and leaving you alone! Maybe you have children, and you have to take care of them as well! This is a very risky career, and you have to sacrifice a lot to take it. So enjoy it while you can, but when you find that love…make sure you keep it! Love is worth more than any job!"

"The same amount of passion a woman would feel for a man, and a man for a woman should equal this Ranger job. This keeps people safe. Pokémon safe. We're the protectors of our region. We're models for kids to look up to. When I'm standing there, winning an award for being a Ranger, do I want to declare I'm retiring, because I'm scared of being left alone? Because I'm scared of the burden of my children? If you can't handle the risks, don't take them in the first place. If I find someone to love, I'll marry them and stay in the force. Damn the risks."

"Kate!" the teacher scolded. "Language! And you're much too young to-"

"I agree with Kate, ma'am!" Keith blurted, standing up proudly. "Marriage is a responsibility and a joy, but so is being a Ranger. Honor before anything else, ma'am. Always honor. I'm gonna marry a girl in the force, just like Kate!"

Rhythmi giggled. "Yeah, _just _like Kate."

He blushed, giving her hair a sharp tug as the class began to giggle and sat down with a pout. "Not funny, Ryth."

* * *

Lookit! Update! Hope I didn't keep ya waitin' too long!


	14. Nature

Nature

He had tripped and fallen directly on top of her. It wasn't pleasant just because they were touching, but because he was on top, in a dominant position. He liked that, quite a lot. Kate did not seem to be horrified, did not seem to embarrassed, but blinked her big, brown eyes at him with slight surprise at the sudden change in position. No, her pinned arms barely moved as she began to tap her right hand against a flat stone, half buried in the dirt.

"Keith," she said patiently. "I'm not a mattress, you know."

"I know," he murmured guiltily.

"Then I have to ask you why, for the fifth time today, you have decided to settle on me. I don't think I look like a mattress. I'm not a rectangle, not really. I'm not made of springs, not last time I checked, though certain parts of me _are _bouncy like springs." She blew the hair out of her face. "That's why, isn't it? Because of my bouncy parts? Those are my boobs, in case I'm not being blunt enough. I'm talking about my knockers. If you liked them, we could have discussed this. I can be a very good listener."

He flushed. "I don't want to talk about your boobs."

"And what's wrong with them? They're natural. You've got to like them better that way." One thin eyebrow raised, recently threaded at the mall with Rythmi.

"I…how do you know whether or not I…" His face deepened in color, yet he still stayed fast in his position. "Kate, I really don't want to talk about this. It's embarrassing. Can we just say that you're beautiful, you're gorgeous, your eyes shine like rays of sunshine and I promise to not land on you anymore."

"Natural or fake?" she insisted.

"Natural!" he exclaimed. "Most guys _do_. I mean, we're programmed to like them that way! They look like we've adapted to know they're supposed to look like. So, yes, I like your boobs but that's not the reason I'm always falling on top of you. I've just been tripping a lot lately. When most people fall on top of one another they end up in some passionate embrace. Meanwhile, you're ranting about boobs! Who does that! You're a freak, you know that?"

"You're going to hurt my feelings."

"Shut up. You have no feelings," he argued.

She leaned up and gave him a kiss. "Freak I may be, but natural I always am. I go by my nature. Make up never touches this face, no implants, no plastic. I do only what nature asks me to do. Out very nature commands us to search for adventure, to be Rangers, to save lives and wander off into the deep, dark woods, far off the trail we're supposed to be on. Your nature is what's driving you to tackle me into this ground and have your way with me."

He laughed nervously. "I wouldn't say have my…"

She gave a playful purr, wiggling her arms free and wrapping them around his frame, pulling him close. "Keith, just have your way with me."


	15. Opal

Opal

The world had never been so incredible to me.

Her _face _had never been so incredible.

We had captured a pair of Floatzel, speeding down the river into dark caverns. The water had been exhilaratingly cold and, like we've requested her to do (jokingly, of course) Kate made a loud fuss about how cold the water was, despite the fact that she was one of those one in a million types who didn't really care either way. We had gone off, diving under and holding our breaths to the point where we were terrified that the pokémon had misjudged our breath holding abilities and were about to drown. That was when we landed…there.

It wasn't for a mission, not for any real purpose exactly. It was because I had a wild streak, and Kate must have some sort of pity that made her nod when I asked her to join me. It's probably the closest thing I'll ever get to a date, mostly because I'm too scared to ask. She would probably say yes, I mean, from what Rythmi has said and from the way that, well, she doesn't really care what I call it as long as we have fun together. Still, it's a risk for me, as big as a risk as it is to be staring at her. But I stared anyway.

Her hair was loose, brown locks clinging to her face and neck, darkened with the water. There must have been some point of light, though I can't tell for the life of me where it comes from, but it's haloing her face. And that face…her lips are parted from the "woah" that escaped her lips a moment before, eyes wide as they took in the surroundings, face flushed with excitement and joy. She was beautiful…so beautiful I keep lapsing into present tense, I guess.

"Opals," she breathed, looking at me. "They're black opals."

I jumped a bit. "How do you know that?"

"If I couldn't have been a Ranger, I would have been a geologist. You get to travel a lot. Figured I would probably get into some trouble anyway, be able to save people," she murmured. "Pokémon, really. Not too much of a people person. This place used to have a river through it, strong current, smoothed out all the rocks on the wall, which is why they shine like they do. And they're all black opals. Black opals are just…gorgeous."

"You think things are gorgeous?"

"I'm allowed to think something's pretty." She grinned. "Everyone has a touch of art in them. Don't you have anything you think is pretty?"

It was stupid, but the worlds fell out, just like they always do. "I think girls are pretty, some girls. You're pretty. The light's shining on your like the opals and the water made you all slick and smooth and…that sounds really weird."

She cocked her head to the side. "Exceptionally weird. Can we wait until we're older to deal with hormones? I don't think I can right now."

I cleared my throat and stared at the floor. "Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We can do the hormone stuff later."

She turned back to the wall and decided, "Opals are very pretty."

The light hit her just the right way again, and I licked my still wet lips. My heart wasn't beating, and I was sure I couldn't breathe. "Yeah. Opals."


	16. Prince

Prince

He hated that little upward twitch of her lips, the arms that crossed over her chest, even the wall she casually leaned against. Team Dim Sun, proudly reunited after the Darkrai incident, had decided that a ship would be a good plan. _Why _they assumed so, especially when Katie-kins had trashed it the first time was beyond him, but they had. In fact, they had made a bigger boat than before, as if that would make it harder to bring down. She had invited him along, and within the first ten minutes of splitting up he was ambushed by twenty (he damned his luck) and put into the very cage he was pouting in now.

"Well, fair prince," she said lightly, and he quietly slammed his head against the bottom of the cage. "It seems you have gotten yourself into quite the predicament, sir. Be glad I've sent the squire off so he doesn't see you trapped behind the grimy bars, defiled by thine opponents. Yes, yes, the squire is off with the lady now, Lady Rythmi, and he's telling her such wonderful stories of how heroic you are. Won't the lady love the irony when she sees you in there? I believe that lady is equipped with other things, yes? Such as a…how do you say? A camera?"

He jumped to his feet, slamming against the cage and instantly regretting it when his body began to ache. He bit back a groan, and this greatly increased the terror factor of his scowl, and snapped, "What gives you the right to tease me? There were more than you ever fought! So I got stuck, it happens, but you don't have to embarrass me! How many times did I bail you butt out in school? All the time, Kate! Oh, you may have acted like a perfect little girl but beneath it all, oh, beneath it all you were just as bad as me! We were terrible misfits! We are _legends _in that school for the havoc we caused."

"Correction," she said, holding up a studious finger. "_You_, fair prince, are the ruler of that school. Your so called protection of me was you taking the blame for all the fun stuff we did, therefore letting the students believe that you did things on your own, although we both know who was the one who snuck into the girl's bathroom and gave you a score of over nine thousand on the wall, Prince Youtube."

He continued to point. "Okay, so I made a few mistakes. Everyone makes a few details in their stories, but I took the blame too. So, I mean, your record is clean because of me. You can't get the rainbow without the rain, you know. You made off better than me! You got the fun and stayed out of trouble, and, I mean, if I'm the prince then you're the _rumored _queen. I mean, you're a _myth _you're so good! All those little Ranger trainies don't believe half the things you did! You're wonderful!"

"Are you trying to flatter me into letting you out?"

He bowed down low, "The prince is nothing, compared to his fair queen. Unlock the cage, milord?"

…How he hated that little upward twitch of her lips.


	17. Quiet

Quiet

"Quiet," she whispered in his ear, ironic that the girl who never spoke said that, a demand for others to mimic her style. More specifically, she wanted Keith to mimic her style as it was his room he was sneaking into in the dead of night. It was his clock one of her hands were resting on, with the red numbers shining some time about two in the morning through her fingers, which seemed to be trembling with excitement.

He listened to her order, rolling out of his comfortable bed to the cold room, shivering at the winter weather and scowling about him. Headquarters was a great place, much better than most places he had been stationed, but he wasn't a permanent member there. He was there for a checkup, a few upgrades, and was booted to the bottom floor, the basement, without even the companionship of a heater.

He pulled on a sweater and sweatpants over his bedclothes and idly noticed that Munchlax seemed to be the most excited of all. He raced around, feet padding on the floor, but the little pokémon must have thought the order was directed at him as well, for he didn't make a sound. Not when Kate guided him down the halls, not when she led them outside. Instead, he panted Keith's pants as if to let him know that it was all alright, and smiled up at him to say what an exciting night it was about to become. Keith smiled back, though his smile didn't say nearly as much.

Munchlax smiled wider at this, and turned to watch his Ranger circling a Staraptor for a ride out. Keith liked Munchlax, because Munchlax often understood his need to sleep. The little creature, like it's evolved counterpart, rarely did anything other than eat and sleep, and recognized the importance of both. Kate had probably woken him as well after staying up too late doing mathematical calculations on the probability of aliens contacting their planet, and the most likely time would be right then, at two in the morning. To top it all off, she would probably be right, and then he'd have to strangle her.

Kate gestured to Munchlax and Keith, seeming to ask if she would be willing to fly them out, and she gave a happy trill. They all cringed at it, and Kate took a good amount of time staring into the bird's eyes with her finger pressed to her lips in the international sign of "shut up". They all saddled up (Kate in front, as she was the only one who knew where they were going, Munchlax on her lap, and Keith behind) and sped off into the sky. Cold wind whipped at their faced, stinging worse when the snow mixed in.

The lights that shone above them made their eyes widen. Reds, yellows, purples and greens dancing above Staraptor's graceful form. Munchlax bounced on her back, trying to jump high enough so his eager, waving hands could scrape the colors, until Kate pulled him close and leaned into Keith's arms with a smile.

"Did you know these lights are caused by-"

"Quiet," he retorted, hugging his fiancé closer.

"One last thing," she said, turning to face him. "Happy Birthday, Keith. I know it's technically belated, being three and all, but I hope I could make it special."

He smiled, kissing her lips once. "You did."

She turned fully to face him, trapping Munchlax between them as her hands cradled his face. "Quiet."


	18. Relentless

Relentless

Kate looked at the clock, knowing about twelve girls were about to become absolutely enraged at her. Rythmi had struck out an hour earlier, insisting she came with them, smiling like crazy. Kate had, of course, declined the offer. There were things to be done in the morning, much more important than some silly prank. No matter how Rythmi insisted it would be fun, no matter how much or how often Keith begged, no matter how badly she wished she could, she had things to do the next morning. She had lessons to learn. She had to stay in bed and glare at the clock and wait for the horror she knew was to come.

_Knock. Knock. Knock. "Open the door, Katie-Cub." Knock, knock, knock._

Most of the girls woke up, and most of the most of girls that had woken glared furiously at the girl who was sliding down under the sheets, hoping that he would get the message and leave her alone soon. A few girls snapped at her, and she said something that reminded them she didn't want him here, and he was doing this stupid thing all by himself. They ignored her, as angry people are apt to do when robbed of sleep, and continued to say hateful things about her and the boy who knocked at the door.

_Knock! Knock! Knock! "Katie-Cub, I'm not leaving." Knock! Knock! Knock!_

"Open the door, Katie-Cub," one of the girls insisted with a snicker. "It's be nice if some of us could get some sleep. We're got a _huge _practical tomorrow, in case you've forgotten. Just because you get plenty of practice rounding up pokémon for pranks and the detentions _because _of your stupid jokes doesn't mean the rest of us are Top Rangers." The girl's voice turned dark. "Not all of us can be prodigies."

"I'm not a prodigy," she argued stubbornly. "I never get detention, either."

"You get plenty of practice, though. Keith makes sure of that. He's always taking you out to _train_. What exactly _are _you training? He doesn't seem to be getting much better."

Kate glared through the dark. "I don't like what you're implying."

"If you mean implying that you and Keith have a thing, and you're going snogging in the stairwell," blurted a girl with a heavy British accent, "that's exactly what we're trying to imply. Just go snog him and get it over with so we can all sleep."

"What's snoggin', Emily?" asked one girl.

"It's kissing," Kate said snappishly. "And Keith and I are doing nothing of the sort! He's just obnoxious and he wants me to pull some kind of prank."

_Knockknockknock. "Katie, Katie, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy, waiting out here for you!"_

She groaned. "I thought he had gone. He was just making up a song! This is _terrible!_"

"He likes you," Emily continued stubbornly. "If you take him out and kiss him or something, I'm sure he'll calm down a little. I'll pay you to do it. Just get the annoying prick out of here."

_Knock. "Katie! Kate, my darling! We've pranks to pull and little time to do it!"_

She kicked off the covers, brows knitted together, but grabbed her styler nevertheless. A few girls giggled, others clapped, and still others whistled as she stormed across the floor, yanked open the door, and gave him a hard punch in the stomach. He keeled over, and she continued walking, muttering a harsh, "Relentless boy!" under her breath.


	19. Submission

Submission

"_Hi Katie!"_ the note proclaimed merrily, seeming to beam up at her from her desk. His desk was now much closer than it should have been, not that the teacher minded. She rarely did anymore, when it came to Keith, and certainly not when it came to Kate and Keith. As the two best students in the class (well, Keith was one of the best in practical and, if his writing could be read, almost the best student in written) they could have been doing flips in the back of the class, and the teacher would only ask them to be quiet and not bother the other students.

The teacher assumed that the participation in note passing was mutual. It was not. Kate did not want to pass notes. She wanted to listen to the teacher. She wanted to learn about catching pokémon with her styler. She wanted to learn about the consequences if they found a trainer to battle and used the styler caught pokémon to fight. They were very bad, and Kate added it to the list of things she would have to make sure Keith wouldn't do. It was right up there behind streaking and passing notes. How she hated him passing notes.

So, she didn't respond. She never did. There was another paper on her desk then, this one quite a bit longer. She glared down at it, angry at herself for being so close she could read his hideous handwriting, and curious enough that her eyes flew over the page, taking in curvy words of: _I know you usually don't talk, well, write, technically, but you will today. Yup, on a written day. On a really important day. You're going to ignore the teacher and talk to me if it's the last thing I do. You're gonna get a whole bunch of notes, and then, eventually, you're gonna write back. And then we'll have a conversation. And you won't know what we just learned and you'll have to read your precious handbook again._

She ignored that note, and the next one: _Do you love your handbook so much you wanna marry it? _And the next one: _Nobody else has even __touched__ the handbook. You're the only one who reads it. I don't think you're a freak though. Means you're smart. _And the next one: _So, smartypants, too good to talk to me, eh? We have ways of making people talk around these parts! BEWARE! _And she even managed to ignore the ridiculous drawing of a magikarp with massive canines dripping blood.

But she couldn't ignore, _I know someone in the school with a better grade than you._

A nervous flush rose to her cheeks, eyes going wide. Surely no one in the other class was beating her test scores? She'd gotten a couple of ninety nines. Perhaps that was it. Perhaps someone had gotten one more one hundred. Her pencil flew like lightning over the paper: _Who has a better grade than me? And how do you even know my grade?_

_Please, like anyone studies more obsessively than you. You're totally got top grade. _There was a large smiley face on the paper. _You submitted to my will. Ha!_

_I __hate__ you._

Keith laughed, loud and long, and was banished from the room. Kate resigned herself, much to the other students' amusement, to repeatedly banging her head against the desk.


	20. Time

Time

"Do you have the time?" he asked lightly, holding up a rubber chicken. Rythmi was grinning next to him, her face insisting that Kate nod and run off with them. The girl shook her head, and closed the door. It was nine in the morning, winter break from the school. She wasn't sure how her friends had managed to track her down. She was sure that her mother had been the one to let them in, probably gushing about Katherine's new friends. It didn't change the fact that she had homework, and she was not responsible because her mother had made a mistake. They were her mother's guests, not hers, and she could ignore them if she wanted.

Rythmi kicked the door, playfully calling, "That's not a very nice friend! A good friend always has the time, Kate! By the way, your mom calls you Katie-Cub. She called you Katherine, but we thought that nickname was a _little _too embarrassing. We'll call you Katie-Cub in school though, if you don't mind. I'm sure you won't. You're not really the embarrassed type. You know, that could be Keith's pet name for you! Katie-Cub! I'm sure it would catch on really fast, the latest trend! Your name and the name of an animal after it! What would I be, Keith?"

"Rythmi-Ranger."

"That's a terrible name," Rhythmi said, trying to keep her voice straight but losing to her giggles. "It's a terrible name, Keithie-Kat!"

The two burst out laughing, and though Kate desperately tried to focus on the paper before her, she could feel her cheeks turning a hot red. As if eyes were on her, she sunk down in her chair, soon hiding under the desk as the giggles got louder. She'd never been teased before, not by anyone except by the girls who would laugh at her old school, and they were just plain mean, in Kate's mind. She understand why they mocked her, but her friends? Was this what friends did?

There was a rattling of the lock, and Rythmi swung the door open, proudly holding up a credit card and giving a triumphant "ha!" before, Keith squeezed her shoulder as a warning, and pointed to Kate hiding, blushing under the desk, chair pulled close in front of her. Being discovered in such a way didn't help much, her blush deepening and her trying to hide by pressing further into the wall, not that it helped any. They were by her side in a flash, pulling away the chair.

"Kate," he said in surprised, touching her arm gently. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she snapped bitterly. "Why don't you just get out and make fun of me some more? Everybody's families are a little strange!"

"We were only kidding," Rythmi said weakly. "We didn't mean to hurt your feelings or anything."

"I'm not hurt," she said firmly. "I'm mad! Get out! I don't want to talk to you and I don't want any friends! Not if this is the way friends are supposed to act! I'll just play with the pokémon."

Keith crawled under the desk as best he could, hugging her close with a pitying sound. "Aw, Kate. You dork. We didn't mean to hurt your feelings, and you are too hurt about it, or else you wouldn't care and you wouldn't ne angry. We really care about you, and we're not trying to insult you: we're only joking. If you don't want us joking, you just have to say so. And if anyone _does _call you Katie-Cub and you don't want them to, we'll deck 'em in the face for ya. That's what friends are for."

She felt her lips twitch up. "I don't think that's the general moral of the Aesop fable."

"Prob'ly not, but it's true."

"What else do friends do?"

Rythmi frowned playfully. "Well, for one, when the handsome male assistant appears with a rubber chicken, they join in the prank."

Keither pulled away, dragging her out from the desk along with him and inquiring pleasantly, holding up the chicken once more, "Do you have the time?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I got the time."


	21. Use

Use

"There's no use in trying, Rhythmi!" he said desperately, pacing around the room frantically. "I mean, I'm the freaking girl in this one! The girl! She can't figure out I have a crush on her, despite the totally obvious hints I keep dropping, despite that I've only kissed her, like, seven times, she can't figure out I have a crush on her! How plain do I have to be? Walk into her house buck naked and ask for her hand in marriage? I'm pretty sure she wouldn't even get _that_! For all her booksmarts, she's not real good at figuring this romance stuff out."

"Nobody does," said Rythmi, slightly dreamily. "Not really. Keith, we'll get back to your situation in a moment, but do you think I look better in the black dress or the purple dress?"

"Dress?" he demanded. "You're an on-call Operator, Rhythm. You don't need to put on a dress. If you put on a dress you're going to get a call, run to the station, and somehow get covered in dirt and scratches and tears. Remember when Susan tried to wear a skirt to work? The Snorlax went _right _into the Ranger Station. Everyone knows skirts and dresses are cursed in the job. Don't even try it. I don't want to be picking up Rythmi pieces."

"You called me Rhythm," she sighed, still a bit dreamy. "Michael calls me Rhythm."

"Half of your friends call you Rhythm!" he shouted, waving his arms at her. "You're completely crazy! I'm lovesick, and I'm not this way! What, did you get hit head on with an attract attack? You know how bad those affect humans? I mean, it was weird enough seeing _Kate _under it. She was all giggly and weird and pulling petals off a flower." He grinned a bit. "But she did come over and give me a kiss on the cheek. That was nice."

For a moment, the two of them were lost in their own romantic fantasies, but snapped out of them at about the same time. They nervously cleared throats and glanced at one another, hoping that neither had noticed the other and their stupid expressions. Satisfied that neither had (or that neither was willing to mention it) they ploughed on, Rhythmi coming to the conclusion that the purple dress looked much better and ready to help Keith.

"Keith, just outright tell her. People forget that everyone is so oblivious partly because they _know_, they just can't believe it. She likes you back, and every time you drop a hint she thinks she's imagining it because she really wants you to like her! So, just walk right up to her and say, 'Kate, I love you. Let us fornicate.' Then your problem is solved. It's that simple!" Rythmi nodded wisely, as if this was a perfectly sensible explanation to his problem.

"I'm not going to ask Kate to fornicate with me!" Keith shouted.

"Ouch, cuts like a knife," Kate said, walking by the door casually, not bothering to stop. "I don't think I want to hear this conversation. You'll excuse me if I don't stop to listen."

Keith's eyes widened, and he mouthed "help me" to the blonde girl. She, in return, held out her ring pop. His eyes widened, and he managed to squeak, "How's that gonna be useful?"

"Well, you're trying to be romantic and it's a ring, isn't it?"

He glared. "You're useless."

"Yeah, okay, I'll remember that next time you want an upgrade or need directions."


	22. Visit

Visit

"Ph, no," she moaned, falling face first onto her bed. She shook her head, loose hair flailing about wildly. "Oh, no. Keith! I can't! I've finally warmed up enough to talk to you and Rhythmi! You've seen my mother's face when I have actual conversations with you! She looks like she'll have a fit or a kitten or whatever the expression is nowadays! I don't talk to people! How am I supposed to come off as the girl for you when I'm probably going to come off as some kind of Victorian girl who was beaten with a pillowcase of bricks if she ever talks? I can't do this, Keith! I can't! Just leave me here! take Rhythmi! Your parents will never know the difference!"

"What do you know," Rhythmi said, smiling. "The girl _does _talk when she's nervous!"

"You can fill in for every family occasion," she blurted, sitting up quickly and twisting so her face was inches from Rhythmi's. From now on…yeah. That's what'll happen. Every holiday you'll go over and pretend to be me. They'll never know. Operators are never in the paper anyway. You can pretend to be me, but be you. If you pretend to be me, I might as well go, and then Keith's parents will lock him a closet and forbid me from marrying him. It's perfect!"

"What if our kids look like you?" Keith pointed out.

The other two jumped at the quick response of, "We'll lock them in the cellar. Say I'm infertile."

"What if _I _get pregnant during one of these so-called visits?"

She shrugged. "Say you've put on some weight."

"Oh, great. Now I'm going to be fat," she argued. "Well, _you're _gonna be fat. Kate, you're ridiculous."

"Oh, like it _wouldn't _work," she snorted. "You know how I am. Every single detail would be planned, and I can improvise. If we work together and you do everything I say, I'm pretty sure we'll be able to pull this off. I can pull it off, me, my alter ego and Keith. I could fool my own parents. I could fool anyone's parents. I could fool Bloody Mary, the now deceased queen of England! Oh yes! I could! I could fool any god or godess I wanted to. I'm that _fantastic._"

He laughed. "But meeting my parents is too big of a challenge?"

"I'm a prodigy, Keith, not a miracle worker," she sighed.

She sat up and let Rhythmi go to work. Her was combed and fixed, make up was applied. She was dragged off the bed to have her dress fixed, slide into a pair of high heels. All the while, Kate was still muttering insanely about the details to her Kate-Replacement plan. She got a kiss on either cheek from the blonde, and Keith led her out the door, chuckling at his crazy fiancé and resisting the urge to ruffle her now perfect hair into the tangle mess it was usually in.

"Do you really think they'll like me?" she whispered nervously. "I don't make good impressions on strangers."

"You'll do fine," he assured. "They'll love you as much as I do, or I'll disown my family."

She sighed heavily, shaking her head lightly as they walked through the fallen leaves. "I hope we won't have to lock the kids in the cellar."


	23. Worthless

Worthless

Keith was the first to track her down. It wasn't hard, as she always wen the same place to sulk. Down to the beach, into the cave, past all the crazy creatures, and, thankfully, walked past the area of the Nosepass Kate had already captured. She was standing, stomping about the tiny cave, kicking pebbles across, no noise emerging from her mouth. She probably wanted to speak, though. He face seemed bright red with the effort of keeping it in. And, poor Munchlax, looking almost guilty, hid in the corner with a sad sort of "munchlax" muttering. The Nosepass was doing a weird little dance, and if Keith hadn't taken a vow to protect all pokémon, he would have kicked it in it's little dancing face.

"Kate, I can't believe you-"

"Don't tell me he didn't deserve it," she gasped, throat tight with rage. "Don't you dare! How _dare _he! How _dare _he! Damn him! He doesn't deserve to breath for what he said! He's lucky all I did was punch him. I would have done a lot more if they hadn't pulled me off of him. Then I ran. I ran like a coward. I should have waited until later. I should have. I should have waited until they cleared out, and then I should have run back and punched him in his stupid face again! I think I heard his nose break. Did it break? Tell me it broke, Keith."

"It broke, So did his arm."

"Arm?" she repeated, stopping her pacing. "They can't pin that on me. There were witnesses. I never touched that boy's arm. He must have done it to himself some other time, because I certainly didn't. Ooh! I bet he's gonna blame it on me! Try and get my styler taken. I don't care if they do anymore! If this is how Rangers and their pokémon get treated in this region, I'm flying out somewhere else. Johto! I'll be a pokémon trainer, that's what I'll do. You can save pokémon as a trainer if you happen across one. You get to keep them if you catch them too. Much better life, that. I'll be a trainer."

"You're not getting your styler taken."

"Oh, good," she breathed a sigh of relief. "I would hate to be a trainer. They're all pompous jerks. Bet that boy was a trainer."

"Hey, some of my best friends and siblings are trainers," Keith said, a bit offended. "I was almost a trainer."

"Good thing you're not," she muttered. "You're still a pompous jerk."

He leaned against the cave wall. "Alright, Kate, I'm only going to ask this once. I know he said something, and I know he said it meanly, and I know you punched him for it. I need to know what he said to you. It's needs to be recorded, and people want to know. They don't want to set you off. You scared a lot of people back there, Kate. You're a well known Ranger and shooting off like that is dangerous. So, what did he say about you?"

"Worthless,' she cried, surprising the boy as she threw herself into his arms and buried her uncrying face into his chest. "He called poor Munchlax worthless! He's saved them and me hundreds of times, and that boy had the nerve to call him worthless! He deserves whatever comes to him, Keith! He deserves it!"

And, as suddenly as she had fallen into his arms, she pulled away, cleared her throat and said, "Sorry for the moment of weakness. Won't happen again. Thanks for coming, Keith. Nice to see you care."

"I _do _care."

"Are you hinting at something?"

He groaned and dropped his head to his hands. "No. Not a thing. Not a damned thing."


	24. Xenial

Xenial (Never heard it before, slang term, apparently, and the Urban dictionary basically says it means "helpful")

He screamed, kicking at the dirt and scowling all around him. He couldn't believe how pathetically he was doing. His first time out with his styler and he had gotten a case of nerves (_him, nerves!_) and completely screwed up his attempt! He was a laughing stock now, and his cheeks flushed deeply as he remembered the sniggers as the Bidoff charged him, and he had freaked out, scrambling into a tree. And then, to make it all worse, _she _had stepped up, prodigy that she was, and tamed the Bidoff, and coaxed him out of the tree. He hadn't been too happy with that, and that had led him to running away, far away, to the statue in the yard, to scream and kick and scowl.

She followed him, apparently, staying a decent ways a way and watching him throw his tantrum. He slowed and stopped, glaring at her until she said, softly, "I apologize. _Beginner's Psychology _says that things like this can be quite traumatizing, and I forgot that assistance is generally even more so, especially by a peer instead of a superior. I should have let you fix it yourself, or let the teacher fix it. But, you were in trouble. My friend. And _Beginner's Psychology _states-"

He would never find out what it stated, because he chose that moment to begin his screaming again. "We're not friends! I hate you! I never liked you and we were never, _ever _friends! Why would I ever want to be friends with a quiet, book obsessed, freak like you! You're not my friend anymore! Just go be a teacher's pet and do everything perfect and be better than everyone else! You just want to take the spotlight, don't you? You always want to take the spotlight!"

"I don't want to take the spotlight," she defended. "And…I thought we were friends. You said we were before."

"I lied!" he shouted, storming up to her. He shoved her roughly by the shoulders. Shocked, confused, she let it happen, and ended up sitting on the grass, staring up at him with big, surprised eyes. "You're just plain mean! You act like you're just trying to help, but we all know that you're just a big jerk about it! I hate you! I _hate _you! Everyone hates you! Why don't you just go back to your stupid little town or go to a new school where the people are all weird like you?"

She gulped. "Do you want my help?"

"No!" he raged.

She stood up slowly, taking a step towards him. "I can show you how to handle your nerves. Do you want my help?"

"No!" he shouted again, jumping up and down on the spot, face contorted with rage. "I don't want your help! I want you to go away! I want you to go away forever! You're just stupid!"

She grinned, releasing the Bidoff which began to run around the yard, pretending to charge her several times. "Are you _sure _you don't want my help?"

He hung his head, face flushing. "Yes. I want your help."


	25. Youth

Youth

Kate pulled a face, looking up over her book, then quickly burying herself back in it, shaking her head. "The youth today is disgusting. Just making out whenever they can, putting their slimy hands all over one another. In public! I mean, I know it happens behind closed doors, and I don't care that other people are doing it, but I hate that they're doing it in front of me. I mean, don't they care that everyone's _watching_. Don't they care that other people could be…evaluating their kissing performance? How embarrassing. You think you're a ten but you're really a two."

Keith, saved his video game, turned it off, and scouted for the couple she was referring to. He found it, and a moment later said in a loud, clear voice. "An eight for the guy, two points taken off for being a little overeager. It's obvious you won't be going too far in a park, sir, especially with children around, so you might as well tone down the heat a bit. Take it nice and slow and romantic. You're only getting yourself excited for a major disappointment. Improve on that, and I'm sure my girlfriend will stop grumbling about overeager couples making out in public, and calling them youth as if we aren't your age, but instead some old married couple.

"You get a three, madam. You're tongue work is appalling and disturbing to watch. It's a major turn off. I should only be able to see your tongue if I'm looking for it. Children playing on the far swing set can see your tongue. I think that's the real reason for the complaint. You are very disgusting. I forbid you from kissing anymore! I'm the kissing police! Both partners need to have at least a seven to kiss on my watch. Well, make the terms looser. They have to _average _a seven, because one might be teaching the other kissing skills, and you could really learn from a ten."

"And you're a ten?" demanded the girl across the walkway.

He grinned, and Kate, sensing the danger, closed her book, set it down, and tensed, prepared to run away. "If you _dare _kiss me in public, I'll bite your tongue out."

"It's a teaching experience."

"It's disgusting."

"It's youthful."

"I'm ninety seven in wisdom," she argued, scrambling to her feet as he lunged.

She wasn't near quick enough, and giggled as he pulled her down to the fountain, catching her lips in a kiss. Whether or not anyone else believed so, she thought he was a ten. She opened her mouth to his tongue, and he eagerly responded. For a few minutes they stayed like that, two of the most famous Rangers of their time, attracting people to clap and whistle, especially whistle when she suddenly found herself laying along the fountain with him right on top.

He pulled away gently, tugging her to her feet and said loudly to the onlookers. "_Kate_, my dear audience, is a perfect ten. Hidden tongue and the perfect amount of passion for a public setting."

She laughed lightly. "Alright, so the youth doesn't have everything wrong."

Keith looked around, suddenly blushing as he realized that girls and boys alike were pointing and giggling, most blushing and most likely wanting to trade places with one or the other. "On second thought, I think you may have been right."

She tweaked his nose, pulling him close. "Well, too bad. Pucker up, Romeo, I'm feeling like I'm seventeen again."

"You're only seventeen and a half-" he began, and was cut off by a pair of perfect ten lips.


	26. Zest

Zest

"Kate, you could use a little zest."

Nothing could have prepared her for that. She froze in her reading, and looked up slowly. Her mouth opened for a moment, then closed with a shake of her head. She went right back down to her book, sighing at the strangeness of it all. She turned the page and forced herself to focus on it, but she knew that he was just beyond her. Sitting in the chair across from her,surely smiling with the big, crazy grin he reserved for those times when he had a plot in mind. She wasn't sure what the plot was, what could be gained from calling her zestless, but she forced herself to ignore it, and glare down at the pages of words swimming before her eyes.

"See Kate," he said, footsteps approaching and couch groaning as he plopped down beside her. "You're a little zestless. I mean, in general, that's not a bad thing. It's that calm, cool head of yours that makes you such a great Ranger. It keeps you from panicking. And who could blame you? Being the prodigy you are, that should be all the excitement you need. Unfortunately, I can't understand everything you're saying, so that kind of loses its appeal. You need more zest, more spark. We need to bring this relationship back to what it once was. You know, the whole sex by the river kind of deal."

"We got caught that time," she said with a sigh, dropping the book to her lap. "That was the most awkward moment I ever had with Rhythmi. Ever. I don't want to have a repeat situation like that. I thought the whole renewing of vows a few months ago was rather zestful. And if this is some attempt for some crazy sexual stunt-"

"Okay, it sort of is," he said, cutting her off quickly. "But it doesn't have to be. We just have to do something interesting, something spicy. Something new and different! We could do something that would throw everyone off. We could run through the streets naked or we could just do something new and fun. We could go skydiving or swim a channel or do something amazingly fun! I want to do something interesting. I want to bring everything back to the way it was, that very first spark! When I looked at you across the classroom and knew you were the one."

"You thought I was a book-loving freak."

"It made the relationship zestful."

She rolled her eyes and set the book down, getting to her feet with a stretch and a moan. "Keith, we are who we are. That little fact should be enough to keep the relationship hot and interesting. I find it perfectly so. It never really gets old, baby. I don't think it gets old. I'm having plenty of fun with you. I enjoy every single second of it. Whether we're doing something crazy of just relaxing on the couch in each other's company, I'm always happy with you."

He jumped up, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Romantic Kate, that's new."

She grinned. "How's that for zest?"

* * *

That's the end! I hope you enjoyed this lovely little collection. Thanks for everyone who reviewed, I'm glad you enjoyed!

Hugs and Love,  
Natty


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